Seasoned Diana Shipping executive Ioannis Zafirakis has stealthily built his own shipowning company to hand over to his son.
Zafirakis, a well-known figure in the dry cargo market, began buying tankers under the radar in 2019 and the venture has only been unearthed now by fresh sale-and-purchase dealings.
TradeWinds has learned that the Zafirakis vehicle is the seller of the ship that took New York-listed OceanPal into the product tanker market this week.
The Palios family-controlled owner said on Tuesday that it had paid $27m for the 50,000-dwt MR tanker Zeze Start (built 2009).
But as TradeWinds reported, the identity of the seller was unclear, described only as a company controlled by one of its directors.
TradeWinds has confirmed that the company is Sea Transportation, a low-key private company founded by Zafirakis in 2019 with the acquisition of two tankers. A third vessel was added to the fleet early this year.
Besides being an OceanPal director, Zafirakis has been a mainstay at parent Diana Shipping, where he is currently director, chief financial officer, chief strategy officer, treasurer and secretary of the New York-listed dry bulk owner.
Zafirakis told TradeWinds on Wednesday that he started Sea Transportation with the assurance that there would be no conflict with his roles at Diana, since one company owns bulkers and the other tankers.
“It’s in another sector,” Zafirakis explained. “We discussed it when I bought my first tanker. There’s no conflict. It’s a different sector and it’s not taking much of my time.
“The technical management is being done by Anglo-Eastern, and I do the commercial management.”
The company’s website shows a fleet of three tankers, including the Zeze Start.
The others are the 47,000-dwt Zobu Start (built 2008) and 41,300-dwt Zeal Start (built 2009).
Zafirakis is chief executive and president, while his son, Dimitris Zafirakis, is executive vice president.
“This is the company that will be for my son, who is finishing university,” Zafirakis said.
“I intend to stay with Diana forever. I don’t know what he’ll do with Sea Transportation, but from now on he will be much more involved. We’re trying to attract vessels from other people to commercially manage.”
Zafirakis confirmed that he tried recently to sell the Zeze Start to Asian interests, but the deal fell through.
OceanPal then asked him about the tanker and he agreed to sell on an arm’s-length basis, Zafirakis said.
Sea Transportation will be providing commercial management of the vessel to OceanPal, he said.
OceanPal is a public spin-off of Diana and is one of the owners that has worked with controversial US bank the Maxim Group on equity deals.
The purchase grows OceanPal’s fleet to five ships, including one capesize bulker and three panamaxes.
“The board’s decision to enter the product tanker space at this time marks an exciting development in the company’s corporate strategy to operate a diversified fleet amid continued optimism in the product tanker sector,” OceanPal chief Robert Perri said in announcing the deal.
